The Inaugural Canberra Gifted Awareness Week Symposium is designed to raise the profile, and provoke active discussion of gifted education among Government leaders, policy makers, Independent, State and Catholic schooling systems, parents and carers, and anyone else involved in supporting gifted young people.

Effective provision for gifted students is attracting attention across Australia. An awareness of the importance of talent development for our nation, the need to improve the outcomes of our most capable students and catering for twice exceptional students are indicators of this.

 

A key factor in improving provision is an understanding of how gifted students know and learn in contemporary classrooms.  Teachers and school leaders need to know what gifted learning looks like, in its multiple forms, so that they can target it in any improvement agenda. The days presentations will discuss the foundations of talent development, what's possible in primary and secondary schools, how to support gifted students beyond school, and how to support the unique needs of twice exceptional students. Opportunities for networking will also be provided.

View the full program here.

Keynote speaker, Professor John Munro

We are delighted to announce our Keynote speaker, Professor John Munro, who is a pre-eminent expert in the field of gifted education. Professor John Munro is Professor of Educational Psychology and Exceptional Learning at Australian Catholic University and Principal Research Fellow (Hon) at the University of Melbourne. He has worked in the area of gifted education and talent development for the past four decades. He designed, co-ordinated and taught the Master of Education (Gifted Education) at the University of Melbourne from 1995-2016 and the Graduate Certificate in Gifted Education at the Australian Catholic University in 2024-25.  He developed an explicit research agenda to investigate gifted learning in the classroom and twice-exceptional learning, and has worked extensively with schools and education authorities both within Australia and internationally to improve provision for gifted and talented students.